Good morning, Houston. If you really love being in your car, you may be in luck: According to former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, traffic in Houston is only going to get worse. His answer? Start planning now for new road construction and encourage people to take public transportation. Our advice: learn to multi-task.
>> That ain't pretty: Looks like it could be the end of the line for a notorious Houston beauty school: On Friday, a judge required the owners of Victorian Beauty College to stop giving hours to students who don't attend classes, to stop letting students cheat on tests and to stop threatening witnesses who might testify against them. And today, students arrived at school to find the place has been sold and shut down. Shady? Noooooooo!
>> No smoking! No, wait: Two and a half months after Baytown voters approved an indoor smoking ban, opponents of the ban have gathered enough petition signatures to force another vote in May. Baytown Citizens for Property Rights says the smoking ban violates citizens' rights; if the ban is voted down in May, the city will revert to its previous ordinance, which allowed smoking in places with designated smoking areas that had separate ventilation systems.
>> Today's weather: No matter what that Yankee groundhog says, it's still winter: Take, for example, today, when it'll be pretty chilly. Temperatures are still below 40 now, but they'll climb to the mid-40s under mostly cloudy skies this afternoon. A sometimes gusty north wind will keep things feeling even cooler than they really are — and then tonight, it'll be downright cold, with a low of 33 and a wind chill around 21. If you don't have a fireplace, we recommend finding one.
Now, chill out with some headlines ...
- Eight suspected members of a violent prison gang appeared in federal court yesterday — part of a group of 17 suspects charged with murder, drug trafficking and robbery
- A Wharton teenager shot during a drug sting yesterday died at a Galveston hospital
- An internal investigation into the 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City plant calls for the firing of four executives
- The 911 tapes connected with Anna Nicole Smith's death have been released — and they don't reveal much
- A UH graduate student is researching ways to make a better space suit for NASA
- Lewis Gilmore Hurst, an Austin man who admitted to three armed robberies of north Houston banks in 2004, was sentenced to 79 years in prison without parole
- According to a new study, low-income families in Texas are paying more for electricity because they can't switch providers
- A traffic stop in East Texas netted officials $6 million worth of cocaine; police say an Arizona man had the drugs hidden in his truck and trailer
- Texas averages one residential foreclosure for every 547 households, according to a new report, meaning it has the sixth-highest foreclosure rate in the U.S.
- HPD is investigating the fatal shooting of a man outside an East End taqueria Tuesday afternoon
- Vanessa Salgado, a fourth grader at J.R. Harris Elementary School, won $50,000 for a new school playground in an essay contest sponsored by Nestle
- Congratulations to Michelle Pringle and Rob Redding, the winners of Houstonist's Young Love ticket giveaway
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Photo: flickr user savinca
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